Christ the Word made flesh.
We are doing a series on the life
and times of Jesus Christ and we come
now to our third consideration and that is
Christ the Word made flesh.
This is what the Bible declares concerning Jesus.
It says in John chapter 1 verse 1,
in the beginning was the Word and the
Word was with God and the Word was
God.
He was in the beginning with God and
all things were made through Him and without
Him nothing was made that was made.
Verse 14, same chapter, verse 14 says and
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us
and we beheld His glory, the glory as
of the only begotten of the Father full
of grace and truth.
I'd like you to mark that in your
Bible there in verse 14, full of grace
and truth.
That's what we're gonna be looking at this
morning in that we are considering today Christ
the Word made flesh.
We have been going and we shall continue
to go throughout this series to the theme
verse of what we're studying that is Colossians
chapter 2 verse 9 and all of our
16 weeks together Colossians chapter 2 verse 9
really brings everything together and look at it
there with me.
Colossians 2.9 says for in Christ all
the fullness, the effulgence, the presence of the
Godhead dwells in bodily form and we're gonna
see exactly what that means by the time
we come to the end of this series,
it's so very very important to us but
we want to take in a couple considerations
today.
In fact more than a couple, we'll look
at seven of them so get your pen
ready as we're gonna be taking notes on
seven very important points regarding Christ and that
He's been made available to us in the
flesh.
We want to ask the question like any
good five-year-old why?
Why?
Not a question to be an antagonist, not
a question to unreasonably argue but a question
to ask because we want to know why
did Jesus have to become a man?
You want to be able to answer that
question of anyone who asks you why.
If someone should ask you why should I
believe in Jesus Christ?
You should be able to give them an
answer.
Now don't show me your hands, it's not
important that you show me your hands but
how many of you are really Christians this
morning?
If you were really a Christian this morning
that's been in the family of God longer
than a month you should be able to
tell people why Jesus came and how He
came.
The reason why He came is because He
has come to deliver a world from sin.
How He came is by being draped in
human flesh and so we look this morning
to the study Christ the Word Made Flesh
because it is so very very central to
the doctrine in which God is teaching us
in the Bible.
In our previous studies we saw Christ in
eternity and that whole study was focused around
the fact that Christ is pre-existent, that
Jesus never had a beginning.
Don't you dare think for a moment that
His life began in that Bethlehem manger.
Oh no, the Bible says that He has
always existed.
In fact the Bible says that all of
the created universe, the physical realm and the
spiritual realm that exists, angels and the like,
have been created by Jesus Christ Himself.
Colossians chapter 1 tells us this.
Not only did Christ exist from all eternity
but we saw in our last study last
week that Christ had a first coming.
Yes, He was born in Bethlehem.
Yes, He was laid in that manger that
we looked at last week but the real
jest is that Christ came during that last
final week of His life, His true coming.
That is, the nation was held responsible to
identify the coming of Messiah.
The Old Testament prophets had forewarned them.
Nehemiah had warned them.
Jeremiah had warned them.
Isaiah and Daniel had warned them of how
to acknowledge and recognize the Messiah and Jesus
came on a prescribed day, a very specific
day given in the prophet Daniel and Jesus
held that nation to know, listen, the day
of His visitation, the arrival to Israel, to
the city of Jerusalem and as we focus
our microscope even further to the Temple Mount
itself.
That was the first coming of Christ technically
in the theological sense during that last week
of His life, His first coming.
The second coming is very much like the
first.
The second coming, though it's futuristic, has to
do with the nation Israel.
It has to do with the city of
Jerusalem.
It has to do as we focus in
our microscope on the Temple Mount specifically.
During both of those occasions it will have
been said when they're all culminated that it
was a public affair.
Both believers and non-believers alike saw Jesus
or will see Jesus in the second coming.
The Bible says that when He comes in
the second coming every eye on the earth
will see Him and by the way the
people who don't know Him, the Bible says
that they will mourn because of the wrath
of the Lamb of God coming from heaven.
Not to be mistaken between the second coming
and the rapture of the church, something totally
different.
One is public, the other one is clandestine
or secretive, quiet.
One is every eye will see Him, one
will be the believers are the only ones
who see His appearing, not His coming.
One is physically or bodily to the earth,
the other one is just to our atmosphere
where He descends out of the stratosphere, comes
into the atmosphere, receives the body of Christ
in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.
Very, very important.
One is Gentile in context, the other is
Jewish in context.
The rapture of the church, altogether different.
The first coming, the second coming, specifically dealing
with the nation of Israel.
We looked at that last time and that
in the coming of Christ, in His first
coming, we dealt with the doctrine of the
incarnation of Christ, that is God, listen, I
love saying this because it's so radical, that
God draped Himself in human skin.
You know that's the greatest miracle of all,
that God would leave heaven and clothe Himself
with human frailty.
That blows my mind every time.
Jesus came into the world as a baby.
He was a hundred percent man, the Bible
teaches us, but a hundred percent God.
When Christ took on the form of a
man, it was once and for all, people,
we don't realize that, we don't often appreciate
that, that Jesus right now at this hour,
shortly after the hour, at 10 o'clock
right now this morning, Jesus is the God
-man seated in heaven.
He will forever be the God-man.
Before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, He was
God, of course, but He did not wear
human skin.
And we'll see this morning how He valued
you and I so much that He considered
the drawback, the debt or detriment of taking
upon a human body, and He weighed that
out and He said, I love them and
I'm gonna go die for them anyway.
And it's a wonderful thing to realize that
right now in heaven, there is Jesus Christ,
the mediator between man and God, who, the
Bible says, is praying for you and I.
Don't you know that?
The Bible says He's praying for us.
That seems kind of strange, doesn't it?
But He's praying for us.
He is praying.
And who's He praying to?
The Bible teaches us, the Father.
Do you think Him and the Father have
anything together?
Little cahoots, a little bit?
About a fellowship, about maybe a treaty?
When Jesus prays for you or me, do
you think the Father's gonna say, I'm not
listening?
Oh no, we have our Jesus praying for
us and we're gonna see how important that
is as He is our High Priest, as
we look at our study today.
The first thing we're gonna look at this
morning, very important, consider with me is this.
We're gonna look at our first point out
of the seven, by His humanity, Jesus has
revealed God to man or to mankind, by
His humanity.
Jesus had to come as a human or
else we would never been able to identify
with God.
Not only that, but He sends us the
message that Jesus coming in the likeness of
human form associates with us.
He is telling us by His coming that
He knows how we feel.
He knows what we're going through.
He knows what it's like to traffic around
this globe.
And so the first thing that we see
this morning is that He has revealed God's
nature to us.
This is a wonderful thing.
It's so important that you and I understand
God's nature.
And when I say nature, it's meant to
be this.
His very actions, His activity, God's way.
You can be a brand new Christian and
not understand all the Bible or even much
of the Bible.
You may not be able even to memorize
a verse yet.
But it's so critically important that you read
the Bible and understand God's nature.
Example, you can know very little of the
Bible, but yet if somebody comes up to
you and says, oh you know what, God
told me that I should, and they articulate
some rude or stupid thing.
You could quickly say, you know what, there's
something wrong with what you just said.
That just doesn't ring true to me.
I'm a Christian and I just don't think
God is that way.
That is the Holy Spirit speaking to you
regarding the nature of God.
We would never have known the nature of
God unless Jesus Christ would have come to
earth.
We would have looked to the Old Testament
and with that we would have glimpses of
God's personality and will and nature, but we
would never have understood it much without Jesus
coming.
And the world today, by the way, is
a little bit more acquainted, even the non
-believing world, who might know something intellectually about
Jesus.
They know something about the nature of God,
though not what you know.
Jesus Christ has revealed or unveiled to us
the nature of God.
John chapter 1 verse 18 says, No one
has seen God at any time, the only
begotten of the Father, the begotten Son, who
is in the bosom of the Father.
He has revealed Him or declared Him to
us.
Now listen to this.
In John chapter 1 verse 18, the Bible
uses there the word begotten Son and it
capitalizes the word Son.
You can see that in your Scripture.
Son, S-O-N.
Well, what's really fun about that verse is
that the King James translators back in 1610
didn't know quite what to do with it,
because the word there is not Son, like
you would say to your son.
The word in the original Greek language is
this, and those of you who have NASB,
a New American Standard Bible, you have it
translated in the exact Greek as it appears
in the Greek, and it's this.
Listen.
John 1 verse 18, No man has seen
God at any time, the only begotten God,
who is in the bosom of the Father.
He has explained Him.
That's right.
The translators put in capital S-O-N,
telling us this, by capital S, being the
Son of God, that He is in fact
God, deity.
But the NASB Bible puts in God because
the word is Theos, that appears there in
Scripture.
That's a powerful argument.
If anybody comes to you and says, well,
you know, the Bible nowhere says that Jesus
is God.
Well, it certainly does in a lot of
places.
But in John chapter 1 verse 18, the
word Son, Theos, is God Himself.
That God Himself has come declaring or explaining
the very nature of God.
In Matthew chapter 1 verse 23, the Bible
says to us, Behold, the virgin will be
with child, and she shall bear a son,
Theos, and they shall call his name Emmanuel,
which is a name attributed to God only,
Emmanuel.
Notice the spelling I-M-M-A-N
-U-E-L.
In Hebrew, you read right to left, that's
God who is among us.
You read it E-L, God, that's His
name, El, E-L, God, Emmanuel, God among
us, or God with us.
It's a title of Jesus Christ, both out
of the Old and New Testament alike.
John chapter 14 verse 6 through 8, Jesus
said to us, I am the way, the
truth, and the life, and no one comes
to the Father but through Me.
If you had known Me, you would have
known My Father also, and from now on
you know Him and have seen Him.
We'll explain that in a second.
Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the
Father, and it will be sufficient for us.
Jesus said to Philip, Have I been so
long with you, and yet you say you
do not know?
He says, He who has seen Me has
seen the Father.
Now what does Jesus mean by that?
If you looked at Jesus, and wouldn't it
have been great to look at Him?
Wouldn't it be great?
Haven't you and I been guilty of this,
haven't we?
Haven't we once or many times said, If
I could just see Jesus, or I wouldn't
have done anything to live back then?
It's just a common thing.
It's natural.
What would we have experienced?
What if we would have touched Him?
What did He feel like?
What do you think?
Did He feel like a normal human?
Oh yeah.
He was such a normal human that many
people didn't recognize Him.
He had a certain body aroma as every
individual has.
He had certain looks.
He had certain personality type things.
Maybe He had a kind of an awkward
or funny giggle at times.
Maybe when He laughed it was loud.
We don't know.
But He was so human.
See, we begin to portray Jesus in our
mind that He's somehow a superhuman.
No, He was the God-man.
He was 100% God.
He was 100% man.
But listen, He was totally God and totally
man.
And we're focusing on the fact this morning
of His manhood or His humanity.
Jesus did not walk six inches above the
ground.
Jesus' feet got dirty.
Jesus got sweaty.
He got tired.
Jesus often was hungry.
Jesus said, I don't own a home.
I live just out in the open.
I have no place to put my stuff.
My head, even at night, I use a
rock to sleep on, you know.
He would wake up like you and I
wake up and maybe there's a little crick
in His neck or His elbow had been
bruised when He bumped into the stall or
to a cart or whatever.
We have so either caused Him to be
so far from our touch and that we've
exalted Him and that's good.
But we have failed often to bring Him
down and to associate with Him.
And that's the reason why God came in
Jesus Christ, to reveal God's nature to us.
And so when Philip said, show us the
Father, what Jesus was saying is the Father
is not 5'11 or 6 feet or
6'2.
That's not what He's saying.
It doesn't mean that the Father has long
hair or a beard.
What He is saying is, have I not
been so long with you and you still
ask me to show you the Father?
He who has seen me has seen the
Father.
Philip, the things I say, the Father says.
The things I do, it's what the Father
does.
The decisions I come to, Philip, the way
I handle a situation, example John chapter 8.
You've heard this before.
The woman caught in the very act of
adultery.
They dragged this woman to Jesus and they
say, Moses says to kill her, but what
do you say?
And I love what it says there in
John.
It says, Jesus stooped down and began to
ride in the dirt.
They're surrounding Jesus.
There's this woman caught in the very act
of fornication and sexual intercourse.
They grab her from her mate and drag
her down the street to Jesus.
She's probably wrapped in a sheet at best
and they stand in there.
They're all dressed in robes.
What an intimidating moment.
Can you imagine?
They're all standing there in their religious pride
-puffed faces saying, Moses says she should die.
What do you say?
And this, the Bible says, they were trying
to trick Him to catch Him in His
words, which leads us to believe it was
a plot.
They set this up.
They probably hired the man to entice this
woman so that they could catch her.
And so Jesus, just quietly, and this is
how the Father is, Jesus stooped down and
began to ride in the dust.
And it says that from the oldest down
to the youngest of the scribes and Pharisees,
they went away.
The oldest guy peeled off first.
You know why, don't you?
The longer you live, the more sins you
rack up in your life.
Jesus looks at this one guy and says,
Fred, and he writes his sins in the
dirt.
Can you imagine?
And it says that they, being convicted, turned
away, the oldest first, then to the youngest.
And the youngest, that's interesting.
People who are steeped in religion and religiosity
without having a personal relationship with Jesus and
they're young about it, they get puffed up.
Can you imagine that last guy standing there?
He's not going to get anything on me.
And Jesus writes there in the dirt his
name and his pride and his lustful thoughts
and his anger, his temper.
And it says the man went away.
And then Jesus says, woman, where are your
accusers?
And she says, Lord, I guess I don't
have any.
And he says, you're right, neither do I
condemn you.
Go now and live no longer in this
sinful practice.
That's the Father.
That's exactly, Jesus spoke exactly what the Father
would speak to us today if that situation
was present.
Would the God that we as Christians would
exercise such grace and truth, huh?
Seems like churches in these days either are
so liberal and so lenient and so vacant
from the Word of God that they go
one way or they get so legalistic and
bound up that they're vacant from the Word
of God in another way and stone the
very people that come to them.
Jesus says, neither do I condemn you.
The very nature of God, when Jesus walked
and spoke and taught, the very essence of
God was being shown to the world.
That's why he said, I'm the Son of
God.
And we looked at this before.
It's a position in that culture, as you
know, that's equal to, not less than.
A very important thing that we need to
consider also revealing God's nature is this, that
Jesus Christ has come and revealed God to
man by revealing God's doctrine, by revealing to
us the doctrine of God.
That is the word doctrine for teaching, the
teachings of God.
The Bible says in Matthew chapter 5 that
Jesus there sat down and taught the people
and they were all astonished because he taught
them as one having authority.
In other words, when he taught, he spoke
knowing what he was talking about and they
said, man, he teaches.
He teaches and he taught.
The word in the Greek to be a
teacher or teaching them is a word to
impart knowledge, information, instruction.
And when it says that he taught them,
it's the word in the Greek didasko.
It means that he gave them the information
and then acted it out with them.
Many of you are involved in the construction
world and field and you have journeymen and
you have apprentice and the journeyman imparts to
the apprentice.
This is exactly the teaching style that Jesus
was involved in.
He would speak to them as a journeyman,
but as that journeyman is, he would turn
to the apprentice, that's us and the disciples,
and he would begin now to teach us
hands-on what we were taught by verbiage.
Are you with me?
It's a great way to learn.
It's the only way to learn.
One of the great setbacks is going to
a Bible college or to a seminary, getting
all kinds of head knowledge without any practical
experience or to go through a practicum.
They miss it.
And then all of a sudden they have
their degree and they're launched out in the
world and they don't know how to even
do a church.
They don't know how to conduct prayer meetings
or a service, but they've got all the
head knowledge about the theological tweedledees to the
tweedledums, but they can't do practical ministry, which
is where God is.
He's in the practical ministry.
And Jesus has revealed to us God's doctrine.
When Jesus opened his mouth, he spoke what
the Father gave him.
He did what the Father wanted him to
do.
That ought to encourage you.
What's it going to be like when we
stand before the Father?
It's going to be the same way that
you relate to Jesus now in your scriptures
and in your prayer and in your time
with God.
Maybe.
And we've got to divorce ourselves from this,
that we see Jesus very benign and very
benevolent and very nice, and then we think
of the Father being almost stern and rude.
And the Holy Spirit, he's just like, I
don't know, he's out there floating around somewhere.
No, that's not it.
It's exactly the same.
They are one.
Jesus could have clearly said, if you've seen
me, you've seen the Spirit.
He was speaking about nature, not only the
nature, but the doctrine, the teaching of God.
There's nothing, listen, there's nothing that Jesus has
said that the Father is going to undo
or edit or correct or contradict.
Isn't that good news?
Because when you read the red letters of
your Bible, how can you not come away
from those red letters blessed?
I always find it interesting that if somebody
wants to reject Jesus Christ and they read
his red letters there recorded in the scripture,
I always like to ask them, what in
the world are you rejecting?
Well, I'm rejecting the part about him loving
everybody so much.
What are you, nuts?
Well, I'm rejecting the part that he raised
people from the dead.
Are you crazy?
I'm rejecting the part that he went around
all the regions of Judea and Samaria, healing
the sick and raising or cleansing the lepers
and setting people free from demon possession.
That's your issue?
You see, what do you have against Jesus
Christ now?
I'd like to know.
What has he ever done to you except
give you the oxygen that you're breathing right
now?
Giving you the blood that's coursing through your
veins and your ability to even get out
of bed this morning is solely attributed to
Christ and to him only.
Oh, you don't know me, Jack.
I'm the captain of my own ship and
it is sinking.
He loves you.
In the book of Revelation, do you know
how you get into hell?
If you want to know, this is how
you get into hell.
The first person that is mentioned, and by
the way, it's covering all of mankind who
has rejected Christ.
The very first person that's mentioned in Scripture
as being lost in hell forever in the
book of Revelation is the coward.
Did you know that?
The coward?
Yeah, it's a sin to be a coward.
When Jesus Christ makes his offer and you
cowardly resist, the Bible says the first one
there listed in that rank order of people
in hell is first the coward.
Why?
Because it takes a lot of guts to
say, Jesus, be the Lord of my life.
I see you.
I see the nature.
I hear the teaching.
And it's reasonable and logical and even if
I can use this term scientific to accept
Christ.
But if you reject Christ, it's ludicrous.
Yes, it's a tremendous step to come to
Christ.
But if you don't, it's because you're a
coward.
You don't want him in your life because
you want to have your own little life
and you're afraid of giving really God your
life.
You think you can handle it better.
And so it's interesting in the book of
Revelation, the first person on the list of
those inheriting hell are the cowards.
God loves us.
Why would we reject?
Jesus Christ has revealed the very nature, the
very doctrine and as we see here, this
third consideration under his humanity is that he
has been revealing to us God's works.
God's works.
Very important.
Jesus did miracles.
Jesus still does miracles.
But throughout Jesus's earthly ministry, what did he
do?
He did miracles.
But he didn't focus on the miracles.
Now I want to say this.
Are you awake?
This is very important.
You guys are so quiet.
It is so important that you get this
in your head and I get this in
my head right now too.
God says in the book of Deuteronomy, chapters
13 and 18, he says, if a prophet
comes and does miracle signs and wonders in
front of you, but teaches a different way
to God, let that prophet be killed, technically,
stoned to death.
Wait a minute, Jack.
Did you read that right?
Oh, yeah.
It says if a prophet comes and does
a miracle, a sign or a wonder, but
teaches you to follow some other God or
gods, God said in the Old Testament, that
prophet's got to be removed.
Why?
The miracles were something.
But were the miracles important?
Well, you might say, well, it was important
to me because I was blind and now
I see.
That is nice, but you know what's great
more than your healing?
Is doctrine, the works of God, the teaching.
Jesus did miracles to confirm the word that
he was preaching.
I say this important thing this morning because
God has promised us that in his last
days, great signs and wonders are going to
come to the churches, going to come to
the world, and will deceive many.
Now listen, if you have a need, and
it's a painful need, yet somebody down the
street is giving out false doctrine, and you
prostitute your soul, and you go down the
street because this guy can heal your eyesight,
but you divorce yourself from biblical doctrine, you
have committed a great travesty.
Are you strong enough in the Bible to
know that if something is being done in
the name of God and in the name
of Jesus, yet their doctrine's a little off?
Are you strong enough in your Bible to
walk away from that?
I fear.
If a magical worker appeared today in our
community, I wonder how many tens of thousands
of people would follow him because he made
them feel better.
He made them see better.
He made them walk straighter, yet the doctrine
was off.
Can you imagine?
I mean, seriously, I'm just asking you.
Can you imagine this?
Because when people say, gee, you know, I
don't know what the Bible says.
Do you know when you say that, if
you've been a Christian for any period of
time, this is an indictment against yourself that
you don't know the Scriptures, and you scarcely
know God.
How are you going to decipher the true
from the false?
By miracles?
No way.
Pharaoh's magicians cast down rods, and they became
snakes.
Moses cast down his rod, and what did
it become?
A snake.
Whose snake was who?
The only way that you could tell one
snake from the other is Moses' snake ate
the other snakes.
That's pretty cool, don't you think?
The works of God.
Jesus did the works of God to qualify
the message that he was preaching.
He had to come to earth to show
to people the kingdom of God.
That's why he said, it is among you.
What was he saying?
He was saying that his very presence being
here and the works that you're seeing is
evidence and fact that the kingdom of God
has arrived.
Remember what Jesus told John's disciples, John the
Baptist.
He said, go back and tell John what
you see.
The blind see, the lame are walking, people
who can't speak are speaking, and the dead
are being raised back and given back to
their families.
Go tell John what you see.
And when John heard this, that wasn't the
convincing point, though it is important.
The convincing point is John was absolutely certain
that Jesus was the Messiah.
If we pursue signs and wonders, that's a
terrible path.
Does God do signs and wonders?
Oh, yes, he does.
He does them.
He does wonderful things.
He does miracles and he still does them
today.
Well, you might say, I don't believe that
he does miracles anymore.
Well, that's too bad.
He does them in spite of you anyway.
He just does them.
A lot of miracles are still being done
in places where the Bible is not so
prevalent and the preaching is going forth and
God is qualifying the preaching by miraculous works.
Well, why doesn't God do a miracle right
here?
He does do miracles here.
We just don't put them up on the
board and we don't have people parade up
and say, hey, guess what?
I'll tell you about a miracle that's happening.
Remember we asked you to pray for Travis.
You know, that kid was not even supposed
to live.
His mother told me last service that he
has received his sight back.
He's out of his coma.
He's got paralysis, but there's other areas of
his body that he's working.
And every day there seems to be, she
said, a new revelation that wasn't supposed to
be there.
And she said, he is so fun to
be with now.
She said, he's just...
And he doesn't remember anything, by the way.
Each day she comes in there and she
goes, I'm your mom.
But that's God's grace right now because they
keep asking him, do you remember the accident?
And he goes, what accident?
I don't know what you're talking about.
And they thought they're going to have to
do all kinds of reconstructive surgery.
And at Loma Linda, they're talking how God
is just healing his face.
Wonderful things.
Well, why doesn't God just snap his fingers
and Travis walk out of the room?
I don't know.
Could God do it?
Absolutely.
But God is touching people's hearts through Travis
right now in the way that God is
choosing to do it.
God still does wonderful works.
The second thing that we see this morning
is this very important.
And that is by his humanity, by his
humanity, he was God's example to all.
Number two, how could this be?
Well, when Jesus was on the earth, and
this is again hard for us to fathom,
he was such a man.
And God worked through him.
When Jesus contended with Satan, when Jesus contended
with men and with demons, he did it
biblically.
He did it according to the Old Testament.
He often used scriptures, as we mentioned last
week.
Jesus used the word of God, but he
displayed an active faith in God.
Why?
Because that's what you and I are supposed
to do.
And you say, Jack, what do you mean
Jesus displayed an active faith?
Jesus had to trust in the Father.
Did you know that?
Luke's Gospel tells us that he learned obedience
by being subject to not only his mom
and his earthly mom and his stepdad, Joseph,
but to his father, Nevin.
He learned obedience.
Well, didn't he just have obedience?
Listen, kenosis, K-E-N-O-S-I
-S, in Greek, it's this, that God in
Jesus Christ willfully laid aside, not out of
reach, but willfully laid aside certain divine performances
that he chose to go without at certain
times.
Example, you know in the scripture where it
says, And Jesus knew their thoughts and said
to them, that's what he didn't lay aside.
But he did lay this aside.
Remember when Peter was trying to rescue Jesus
from the garden?
Judas came up and gave Jesus a kiss,
and Peter's going to rescue the day, right?
Peter runs up there and pulls out a
knife and misses that guy's face and cuts
off his ear.
And Jesus picks up that man's ear and
puts it back on, and Jesus says, Peter,
put away your sword.
Don't you know that I could call down
legions of angels to deliver me right now?
Kenosis.
That's true.
He could have.
He could have, in the spiritual realm, reached
over to that toolbox and grabbed what was
available to him at any second, but he
chose not to do it.
Remember when Satan says, Since you're the Son
of God, command these stones to be turned
into bread.
Kenosis.
Could he have made stones?
I mean, bread out of stones?
He could have made Krispy Kreme donuts out
of those stones.
But he didn't.
He didn't.
Kenosis.
100% God, 100% man.
He lived in active faith.
He trusted in the Father.
He looked to the Father.
Why?
Because that's what you and I have to
do.
Don't you dare pray and say, Jesus, you
know I'm having such a struggle with my
faith.
I know you don't know what I'm talking
about.
He knows exactly what you're talking about.
The Bible says in all points, Jesus has
been tempted like us, yet without sin.
Or, I like to put it this way,
in all points he was tempted just like
us, without caving in.
He didn't cave in.
He's an example to us that a man
can resist Satan by the power of the
Holy Spirit, that a man can resist temptation
by the power of the Holy Spirit, that
a man can live in this life by
the power of the Holy Spirit.
Also this, by displaying an active faith, yes,
but also by resting in absolute hope, Jesus
hoped in the Father.
Let me define this quickly.
Not our kind of hope that you and
I think.
When we think of hope, we think of
the word like this.
Oh, I hope I win.
Oh, I hope they come soon.
Oh, I hope, and it's all predicated upon
other people to perform, right?
I know none of you would ever do
this.
There's no way because it's a wicked sin,
but there are people outside the sanctuary that
would go to a liquor store and buy
a lotto ticket, and then they would say,
with God's money of all things, and then
say, oh, I hope I win.
Hope?
This is not the kind of hope that
the Christians to have.
It's a hope that is true, firm.
It's there.
It's a hope that you can touch.
When we say, oh, I hope in Christ,
what does that mean?
It means like a brother this last week
who turned to a physician and said, if
I die this week, if I die today,
I know Jesus is going to take care
of me.
And the doctor said, I've never seen anybody
act this way in the face of pretty
grim news.
And that man said, I hope in Christ.
I'm not worried.
Drove the doctor nuts.
The nurse came in.
The doctor said, I should like talk to
you.
Isn't that cool?
The hope of God is something sure.
It's not, oh, I hope, I hope, I
hope.
No, you state it because it's a fact.
I, I, we hope in God.
Therefore, we, what?
We rest.
Look at this.
Jesus not only hoped in God, he had
active faith, but there's this unconditional love that
Jesus portrayed to people because there was this
rest about his very soul.
He was showing forth the unconditional love of
God.
Again, show us the father.
Jesus says, I already have.
The love of God is unconditional.
That is, it is without requirements.
This is so fantastic.
People, who are you today?
How bad have you been?
Not bad enough to challenge unconditional love.
How bad have you been only?
God has it.
People will say, I love you.
Oh, I love you too, sweetie.
I love you so much.
Oh, I love you so much too, sweetheart.
I love you unconditionally.
Why?
I mean, the intentions might be there, but
it's not true.
We can't, we don't have that power.
I love you unconditionally.
And then they, they, they take the biggest
cookie off the plate and then you're going,
what is this?
What did you take the biggest one for?
That's not unconditional love.
It's so funny.
God, only God loves like that.
Unconditionally, there's prostitutes, there's whores, there's bank robbers,
there's prideful people, there's religious people, there's donkey
mechanics.
They're all in front of Jesus and he
says, I love you.
It doesn't matter what they do.
It doesn't matter what trade they had.
It doesn't matter where they were living.
It doesn't matter what evil they had been
or lived in their life.
Jesus says, I love you and I'll show
you my love.
I'm going to go to the cross.
Can you imagine him hanging on the cross
and saying, I'm dying for the sins of
the world, which is what John 3.16
is all about, except for him over there.
Think.
Oh no, he loves all people.
Now, let me say this.
Do all people go to heaven?
No, because some people are so stupid that
they refuse this offer of unconditional love.
They refuse.
They reject.
I'll have nothing to do with Jesus.
Why?
What's your problem with him?
I don't know.
I just get nervous when I hear his
name.
Maybe that's because you had to do something
about his name.
Unconditional love.
He loves us.
The Bible says that if he'd be lifted
up, he would draw all men unto himself.
The third thing that we see this morning
is this.
By his humanity, he took our place in
judgment.
By his humanity, Jesus had to become a
man to take our judgment.
Did you know you and I, we were
held in bondage to judgment that's coming?
Did you know that Jesus Christ died on
the cross so you and I wouldn't have
to be judged?
Literally judged by God himself.
How's that?
Because the law stands and looms over us
as the perfect immovable standard of God, the
law.
How did Jesus win this battle for us
and take upon him our judgment?
By meeting the requirements of the law.
Jesus met the law as it looms over
every human being.
Was Jesus a human?
Yes.
Did he have to or was he under
the yoke of the law?
Yes.
Galatians chapter 4 verse 4 says so.
But because Jesus is God, he met the
standard that he himself created.
Only God could.
Isn't this exciting?
An angel didn't die for us.
Now angels are pretty awesome.
They're not little fat things hanging in your
bathroom with those stubby wings.
They're awesome things.
They're awesome.
People Daniel and others see angels and they're
sick to the stomach.
They're sick.
Daniel says when he saw the angel Gabriel,
he was sick for days.
Physically sick.
People see angels and they freak.
But Jesus didn't die for angels.
The Bible says Jesus died for mankind, for
us.
Angels nowhere in scripture are spoken of being
redeemed or redeemable.
But we are.
By the way, no scripture says that angels
were created in the image of God.
But we have been.
The Bible says that God sent his son
Jesus Christ, born a little lower than the
angels, but crowned with glory and honor.
The great coming of Christ in the flesh.
He was subject to the law.
It looms over every one of us until
we come to Christ and Jesus on our
account, so to speak, takes care of the
law's demands.
The Bible says in the book of Colossians
chapter 2, it says, And you being dead
in your trespasses and sins and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, he has made us alive
together with him, for we have been forgiven
of our trespasses and sins.
And he has wiped out the handwriting of
requirements that were against us, which were contrary
to us.
And he has taken them out of the
way having nailed them to the cross.
Do you remember if you were here Wednesday
night, we saw a moment, that projection.
Remember of Jesus on the cross and that
sign over his head?
Remember what that sign said?
That sign says, Jesus Christ, the King of
the Jews.
And by the way, that's why he was
killed.
He was killed because he was Jesus Christ,
King of the Jews.
It's just that they didn't believe him.
The statement was true, but they didn't believe
him.
So they put the accusation over his head,
nailed it to his cross, and they killed
him.
And when that man on that cross, if
he was a bank robber or thief or
a mugger, it was put over his head.
Once that man died, they took down that
accusation and they burned it.
Why?
The man was dead.
What does it mean?
That thief who died on the cross paid
the societal debt that he owed to the
world.
When Jesus died on the cross, he died
for no sin of his own.
He died for all of our sins.
Having taken our sins and nailed it to
his cross, Jesus in our place died for
us.
And that accusation of our sinfulness, so to
speak, God took down after Jesus had died
and burned it in his judgment.
And we were freed.
This is the gospel.
It's incredible that someone would die in our
place.
It shouldn't be that incredible for us if
we have a child or a loved one
where there's this natural instinctive response when you
love someone.
You don't even have to discuss it.
You leap in front of that train or
that car or in front of whatever it
is to save a life.
Jesus leapt in front of mankind between heaven
and hell and died for us.
It's incredible.
It's a fantastic thing.
Our God is so loving and so awesome
for us to do this.
He died for us.
He was subject to the law and loomed
to consume every human.
Yesterday we were at the beach and this
huge, we were this fence.
And he's just, and he's right there on
the boardwalk.
And he's just hanging there with a big
head and his ears are flopping.
And he's barking and barking and barking.
That's how the law is.
The law hangs over us to intimidate, to
show us the perfection of God and that
this is what you must do to get
to heaven.
You've got to be perfect.
You've got to keep everything.
And if you miss one point, you're guilty
of it all.
You fractured it and then you're going to
go to hell.
And the law stands there and condemns us.
And Jesus comes into the world and he
keeps the law.
He performs it perfectly because it had to
be a man.
Yet because it was God's standard, it had
to be the God-man Jesus.
Jesus had to come in the flesh.
He had to come.
Another thing that we see this morning is
this.
By becoming the perfect sacrifice, Jesus became the
perfect sacrifice for us.
He was the perfect sacrifice for us.
The fourth thing that we see this morning
is by his humanity, he destroyed the work
of Satan.
I like this.
I want to hear more and more about
this.
By his humanity, he destroyed the works of
Satan.
Scripture says in John chapter 12 verse 31,
now is the judgment of this world and
now the ruler of this world has been
cast out, said Jesus.
When the gospel, when the kingdom of God
came to men among earth, Jesus says, now
the prince of this world is judged.
The prince of this world is Satan.
And men knowingly or unknowingly love to have
him in control because he caters to the
flesh.
He caters to the world.
He caters to sin.
He's the one that tempts you, entices you.
In Colossians 2.15, the scripture says Jesus
Christ disarmed principalities and powers and he made
a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them
in the cross.
Jesus thwarted the plan of the angelic or
fallen angelic realm.
In Hebrews 2.14, the scripture says, inasmuch
then as the children have been partakers of
flesh and blood, he himself, Jesus Christ, likewise
shared in the same, that through death he
might destroy him who had power over death.
That is the devil.
Isn't that great?
Do you appreciate Jesus?
Let me put it this way.
Are you afraid to die or do you
ever think about death or the pain of
death?
Well, you can say hallelujah, Jesus came to
take away the sting and its power.
To all those who trust in Jesus Christ.
I have to confess, I'm not afraid to
die.
I don't believe I'm going to miss a
thing down here on earth.
This place, I have determined, it's taken me
41 years, but I have concluded it all
stinks at best.
And the more I read my Bible, the
more I get excited about where I'm going.
So you know, come on Lord, let's go.
I will confess what I don't want to
go through is the death process.
Just let me get to the death part.
I don't want to go through the process.
I don't want to be plugged into a
machine.
I don't want to wither away.
But that's God's business.
He's determined how we will go.
I just don't want to be in pain.
Thursday I found out I had to have
an emergency root canal.
This is the fourth or fifth visit to
a dentist in my entire life.
I've never had a cavity.
I don't know what it's like to go
to a dentist, and it was like, oh
my gosh, I'm going to die.
And I went to this guy, and I
had to go to this specialist because of
the problem of the way the tooth broke
like this.
And the guy said, I want this to
be a pleasurable experience.
And I'm thinking, and I go like this.
I said to him, great.
And I'm thinking, you liar.
And I laid down there, and the guy,
he just swabs my mouth with a little
cotton swab, you know, and I didn't know.
It smells like bubble gum.
It's nice.
And I had my eyes closed because it's
really close to your face.
I don't want to look at this guy.
You know, you're like right there on the
guy's face.
And he starts to wiggle my jaw.
He grabs my face.
He's wiggling my face.
And I never felt a thing.
And then he's, and I didn't feel a
thing.
Nothing.
And it was all done.
48 minutes later and 640 bucks later, he
goes, you can go now.
And I couldn't believe he was done.
All the pain had been taken away.
It was nothing there.
Jesus came and took the pain away.
He took the curse away.
He took the power of death away.
That's love.
That's care.
That's a doctor you want to have.
Jesus.
Very, very exciting.
By his humanity, he destroyed the work of
Satan.
He destroyed the power of the flesh.
Christian, don't raise your hand.
But if you're a Christian here tonight or
today, this morning, if you're a Christian, you
have the Holy Spirit in you.
The power has been given to you and
I to overcome the demands of our flesh.
The Bible says in Romans chapter six that
we are not under the law but now
under grace and so that sin shall not
have dominion over us.
If you keep doing a certain sin, it's
because you want to.
You want to.
Don't tell me you don't want to.
Well, I'm really caught up in this, you
know, I just can't stop having a vodka
tonic and I know it's bad.
Stop.
I'm trying to stop, man.
I just can't stop.
What's that battle all about?
It's the flesh saying, hey, take your Christianity
and put it in the back seat for
a minute.
And this battle goes on in your mind
if this applies to you and you come
to a conclusion and you're going to go
get, because you're thirsty, a 7-Up but
you walk into a bar to get that
7-Up.
That's nuts.
You don't go to a bar to get
a 7-Up.
If drinking is your problem, steer clear of
anything and everything that tempts you.
Be wise.
Be wise as a serpent, harmless as a
dove.
Be violent against sin.
If you're tempted physically with maybe images or
pornography or stuff, don't go down the 10
freeway with all those pathetic billboards.
Don't go online and get tempted.
It'll go onto the Internet.
If you do, it's because you wanted to.
That's a fact.
If you're doing a certain sin, it's because
you are willing to do that thing.
And you can be a Christian and be
caught up in this very thing I'm talking
about.
Just know this, Jesus Christ died to set
you free and you don't have to sin.
We do it because we want to.
We let down our guard or we allow
ourselves to be weakened.
Sin shall not have dominion over us.
The power of the flesh, it allures us
away and it's so, so powerful.
But greater is He that is in us
than He that is in the world.
The next thing that we see here is
that He destroyed the power of the world.
That is specifically the spirit of Antichrist which
1 John tells us is in the entire
world.
Everywhere.
The spirit of Antichrist.
I'm not talking about the Antichrist.
I'm talking about the spirit of Antichrist.
This anti-Jesus.
Did you see in the news that house
prayer meeting?
Can somebody tell me what state that's in?
Does anybody know?
Anybody watch news here?
Anybody at all?
Colorado.
Colorado has a strong Christian presence.
So there's this home in Colorado that has
been having a home prayer meeting and now
the authorities have come in to shut it
down.
And they did, last night I saw it
on the news, they did close the prayer
meeting in the house.
Yeah.
Because they said it's against the law of
the city to have a house encompass or
restrict or exclude anybody of the community whatsoever.
And so because some of the community doesn't
want to come and pray they feel excluded.
It's wild.
Keep your eyes on the news and pray
because it's only a matter of time before
it comes here.
Interesting.
The world.
Have you caught on yet that the world
is going to kill you?
Oh it may dress up sweet and it
may smell real good, but it will kill
you.
Be very careful.
Also this, he destroyed the power of sin.
We've talked on that.
We've discussed that.
Thank God for God.
The fifth thing we see is that by
his humanity he has become our high priest.
You don't need me.
You don't need any other pastors.
You don't need the Pope.
You don't need Billy Graham.
You know who you and I need?
The one whom the Bible says that there's
one mediator between man and God and that
is the man Christ Jesus.
That's what we need.
We need him.
He's our high priest.
Jesus Christ could never have been our high
priest if he wouldn't have come to earth.
Could he have redeemed us from heaven?
I guess he could have done anything he
wanted, but he came to earth to tell
all of us by his life and by
his message that we can relate to him
and he can relate to us.
That's what a priest is all about.
There is no priest if you can't relate
to him.
Jesus took our clothes on, so to speak.
He took on our skin.
And a priest not only relates to the
people, but he relates to the authority.
That's God the Father.
The priest is the go-between.
Jesus is our priest.
My friend, you don't need to confess your
sin to anybody anymore but God alone.
Read Hebrews chapter 9 and chapter 10 this
afternoon.
The scripture says there are people who go
and offer their confessions before men.
Priest, it says in the scriptures, who can
never take away sins.
But this man, after he once purged our
sins, sat down at the right hand of
God the Father and is seated in glory
on high.
You confess to Jesus Christ who died for
you, says the Bible.
Of course you know the scripture, if you
confess your sins to him, he's faithful and
just to cleanse you from your sins.
He's our high priest.
He knows our weaknesses.
The high priest is very conscious and very
aware.
If we were to tell him, Jesus, thus
and so, he knows this.
Jesus, I can't bear up under this pressure
financially, physically, emotionally, the school, the kids, the
job, my spouse, the world, I'm dying.
And Jesus says, I know exactly how you
feel.
And the Bible says, I'm going to intercede,
I'm going to pray to my Father for
you.
The priest, Jesus, does this.
Isn't that something?
He prays for us.
And you can't lose because the Bible also
says the Holy Spirit's praying for us.
And I like that, wherever two or more
are gathered, there he is in the midst.
Jesus is praying, the Holy Spirit is praying
to whom?
The Father.
We got to win.
We do win.
I know it seems tough.
I know it feels like we're going under.
But we're not going under.
He'll see us through.
He's a priest.
He's dedicated to getting us in, to getting
us through.
Also he's very, very faithful at dealing with
all of our fears.
Do you have any fears?
We all have fears.
We hate them.
We should hate them.
But we have fears that plague us.
They often keep us shrouded from doing anything.
Many Christians, I think most Christians than not,
most Christians, and maybe it's true for half
or more than half of this sanctuary even
here right now this morning, most Christians don't
do anything for God because they're afraid of
failing, which is a trick from Satan because
what they wind up really doing is stepping
right into Satan's trick.
They don't do anything for God for fear
of failing.
So what happens in the end, they wind
up having lived a life that never had
any influence for God whatsoever.
Rather than trusting God to live his word
out in their lives, they're cowardice and they
just hide and they bury Jesus as their
talent in the ground because the enemy will
whisper.
We have fears.
We're afraid that we're not going to be
accepted.
One of the strong personal things that we
deal with in our psychology as humans is
if we go into a room or into
a gathering or into a place, will we
be accepted?
And the Bible tells us that in Christ
Jesus, he has made us acceptable in the
beloved.
Ephesians 1.6 tells us he has made
us acceptable in the beloved.
We're acceptable to God.
By his humanity as our high priest, becoming
a high priest, he has made us acceptable.
He's taken away our fears.
He has taken away our weaknesses.
He has taken away our fears.
As high priest, he is for us and
will be there for us for all time.
The Bible says that Jesus Christ is forever
a high priest for us.
One of the great books of the Bible
that you can read right now to stay
current on what God is doing in your
life is to read the book of Hebrews.
It talks about your priest, Jesus.
The sixth thing we see this morning is
by his humanity he has enabled God's prayers
or God's promises.
I'm sorry, God's promises.
By Jesus coming to earth, he has enabled
or enacted or put into power the promises
of God.
God's promises in this book, get a load
of this.
This is something.
The Bible says that Jesus is the Word
of God, right?
He is the Word of God.
He is the Word.
And he has always been.
But then it says as we saw in
John chapter 1 verse 14 that that Word
became flesh.
Well, isn't it amazing that we could argue
that right here in your lap is the
nature and the personality, the will, the power,
the knowledge, the revelation of God in this
book on your lap.
And the wonderful thing about that is that
this book is pregnant with promises.
How do we get them?
By Jesus Christ becoming a man.
He has bridged us between God and his
promises in a lost and lonely world.
Jesus has brought us together to meet.
The Bible says that we were once alienated
from the commonwealth of Israel as Gentiles.
But through Jesus Christ, he has manifested to
us the promises.
God has made us promises.
And he's going to answer and fulfill those
promises.
He's enabled our relationship to God.
Jesus, as we said earlier, is the way,
the truth, and the life.
And no one goes to the Father but
through him.
Now, did you hear that?
But through him and him only.
Well, Jack, I'm a really good person.
That doesn't count.
Unacceptable.
Well, I've been a church member all my
life.
Unacceptable.
I've read my Bible 10 chapters a day
all my life.
Unacceptable.
I've tied a million dollars.
Unacceptable.
What is acceptable?
That we come to Jesus Christ, recognizing that
he's the only way, the truth, and the
life.
No one comes to the Father but through
him.
The second thing is that he's enabled our
communion with God.
Not only does God want us and he
brings us through Jesus, but God wants us
in a very intimate way.
I love, I love this consideration here.
Yes, God loves us, but he likes us.
He likes us.
You know, it's something when somebody says, well,
I love you.
You know, it's almost like this thing where
you've got to love people.
There's people that live in your house.
You've got to love them.
You've got to.
But do you like them?
If you like them, you like to hang
out with them.
If you like them, you want to be
with them.
Jesus likes us.
Isn't that a trip?
Well, Jack, you're blowing my mind now with
that one.
Friday, Friday, Friday day and Friday night, I
was teaching up at a youth camp and
I told the kids about the book of
Zephaniah chapter 3.
It says in there that the Lord will
spin around in heaven when we get there.
Remember, we've taught on this before, that the
Lord is going to spin around with singing
those who love him.
And normally when you state that verse in
Ecclesiastes 3, 14 through 17, it's kind of
a wild thing because normally adults just go,
hmm, I really don't think that literally God
is going to really spin around or anything.
And it says that he will sing.
In fact, in the Hebrew it's sing loudly.
I don't think he's going to sing loudly.
That would be really, you know, something.
Well, you know what, when you say that
verse to 400 junior hires, you know what
they said?
They all go, BOM!
BOM!
That means something really great, I guess.
When I told them that God was going
to spin around them and sing with joy
when they get to heaven, those kids got
it.
All right!
You know, it's us old fogies.
God, will you calm down please?
God, at your age.
No.
Communion, he's nuts about us.
He loves us.
Also this, by his humanity he has enabled
God's promises by enabling us to be adopted.
He's adopted us into the family.
How could that have ever happened?
Unless Jesus Christ come to earth in human
flesh.
There's no other way.
He had to come.
And finally this, go with me here.
The seventh one is this, by his humanity
we can be elevated.
This is what you're looking for.
This is what you really want anyway, you
and I.
We want to be appreciated.
We want to be known.
We want to have identity.
We want to come from this fallen state
that we're in.
All of us can tell a story about
this.
Either some of us have come through it
because God brought us through and now we're
in the family.
Being born again is the ultimate elevation for
the human.
This means that we've been delivered from our
fallen state, from our fallen condition.
Maybe you're in here this morning and you're
doing drugs and stuff or you're just trying
to maybe exercise or put enough makeup or
body stretch, I don't know, to just live
forever.
But it's not working.
It's not supposed to work.
We're fallen.
We're dying.
But the inside of us will live forever.
The emotion, the thought, who you are, your
imagination, the person that you are will live
forever.
Jesus Christ died on the cross to elevate
mankind out of death and out of decay
into life.
That's good news.
He's declared to us our worth.
God thinks that we're altogether something even though
you don't think much of yourself or of
anybody else.
He's called us to be His own.
He wants us for Himself.
The Bible says concerning God's love for us
that He's jealous for us.
That's something, of course, in a godly way.
He was willing to give all for you.
Again, we come back to where we started
this morning.
Jesus Christ is a man seated at the
right hand of God the Father.
And He took upon Himself the form of
a human being to save you and I
from eternity.
But the drawback on His part was that
He'd be a man forever.
And yet He did it anyway.
That's awesome.